Dog park group in London Ont. needs help!

Hi there! I am with the London Dog Owners' Association and we are in the midst of preparing to open up a new off leash dog park in the west end of the city known as the Byron area.

All things were looking great BUT we have learned that there is a group of non-dog owning, (likely), residents in the area that do not want this park at all in their little corner of the world and have secretly met and hired a lawyer:eek: to fight city hall on this!!

These opponents have apparently videotaped the newest leashfree park and have damning footage....:p . Well I am going to go film their neck of the woods and see what I capture on tape....loose dogs, piles of crap....

As per regulations, the City has sent out 40 information letters to adjoining properties, requesting any feedback or issues that the residents may have with this proposed park, and apparently, there are a number that do!

My belief is that they do not want cars parked in front of their houses by one of the proposed entrances of the park. To me, if most folks that live in this area would WALK to the park, not drive. Anyone else from farther reaches would likely use the main entrance on the opposite side of the park, and not take the extra time and effort to drive all the way around the park to use the back entrance!

There is a school in the vicinity as well, but there is a huge hill and large field between that and the proposed park, but there are those that figure the dogs will escape the fully fenced area and attack the children...yeah right....

I figure that there are dogs already using this open area and pooping willy nilly with no owner clean up. This is another issue...poop and health concerns.

This group managed to get the city to back down and put the park on hold indefinitely, all without the knowledge of our group, as the letters were to be ret'd to City hall address and we JUST found out about it!

We are on the warpath!

We need from you folks that may live in London, preferrably the west end of the city, to kindly write letters of support to the LDOA stating why you need and want this park in London. We only have 2 and need many more as we are a growing community. The current parks are so popular and overpopulated, we really need this park and others.

If you could please help us, we would be eternally grateful, as would the dogs:thumbs up

Please email: www.londondogownersassociation.ca

or snail mail: LDOA, 46 Jacqueline St. London On N5Z 3P7

Thank you!!:highfive:

Wow, people are pretty uptight huh?! Would they prefer individuals have their dogs off leash illegally or have them off leash legally and responsibly?

I think that folks already ARE letting the dogs loose in the area. Going there on a covert mission to take photos of just such activity this weekend. Have hit a few pet stores and my vet with the posters. Byron library too! The guy who does our website has posted this info AND he lives in the area and will hand out little flyers too!

Any help we can get we will take and we WILL have that park in place on time as promised. Can't wait til the dog owning segment of that area finds out that the city may take away a promised park! This could get nasty!!

Thanks for helping spread the word GP! You rock!:love:

It turns out that a meeting will be held at the end of April at the school adjacent to the proposed park. "They" have a petition going and a lot of letters from fellow neighbours. "We" have started a petition and have a handful of letters but requests out to our membership and a number of vet clinics, pet salons, pet supply stores and we will really hit the rest of the pet population now.

We are planning on calling in any pet professionals, trainers, behaviourists etc that we can think of, to ask that they present at the meeting. We will use stats, proof, facts and examples to back us up. If we lose this park, thatpretty much ends it for any more dog parks in London, as "they" are using safety as their angle. Once the city decides that the park would be unsafe, they will refuse any other parks. Period.:mad:

I am very open to any suggestions on how to win this battle:o :grouphug:

Hi Lezzpezz!

I just wanted to say that I saw your sign up at the dog park today and actually heard people talking about it and saying how they were going to try and help! So it was a great idea putting the signs up at the off leash parks. I know a couple of people from byron that go to the pottersburg park so I'll let them know as well.

Thank you Katy82! Word of mouth is a great tool! I appreciate any and all help on this.

Our website now has an online petition and comments board. The second "signature" was a slam against the parks, so I politely redirected folks to use the comment board for this or send comments in opposition of the parks to City Hall.

Please, if anyone interested that lives in the London area, could visit our website: www.londondogownersassociation.ca and sign our petition for leash free parks. We need all the help we can get!! Comments gratefully accepted too!!:highfive:

i live in south london so we go to the pottersburg park. went there yesterday for the first time this year and i really like the new fence. :)

i thought the grand opening for the other park was sometime last year?

~Amy